James and Mary Emelia Mayne Centre

Architectural history

UQ Art Museum is housed in the James and Mary Emelia Mayne Centre. Brisbane architect Robin Gibson OAM (1930–2014) designed the original building, which was opened in 1973 and features coloured-glass windows by the late North Queensland artist Nevil Matthews (1930–2013). Mayne Hall, as it was known, was used for graduation ceremonies and concerts.

When graduations moved to the UQ Centre, then Vice-Chancellor Professor John Hay AC moved to reinvent the building to house the University’s Art Collection. A generous donation from The Atlantic Philanthropies helped facilitate the makeover.

Opening of Mayne Hall 31 March 1973. University of Queensland Archives.

Opening of Mayne Hall 31 March 1973. University of Queensland Archives.

The challenge for the commissioned architect, Hamilton Wilson of Wilson Architects, was to be true to the ‘envelope’ and structure of Gibson’s building. To achieve this, he created a building within a building. Lightweight bridges connected the new mezzanine to the ground plane and a two-storey timber-clad ‘pod’ was inserted, which houses the gallery space.

The new UQ Art Museum officially opened in April 2004. The remarkable and sensitive conversion won Wilson Architects a number of awards in 2005 and 2006, including the prestigious FDG Stanley Award for Public Building Architecture (2006) given by the Royal Australian Institute of Architects (RAIA).

Alex Chomicz's film on the building's conversion.

James O'Neil Mayne (1861–1939). University of Queensland Archives.

James O'Neil Mayne and Mary Emelia Mayne

The James and Mary Emelia Mayne Centre is named after two key benefactors to The University of Queensland: James O’Neil Mayne (1861–1939) and his sister Mary Emelia Mayne (1858–1940).

Dr James Mayne, who was a medical superintendent of the Brisbane General Hospital (now Royal Brisbane Hospital) from 1898 to 1903, was a long-time supporter of the University. In 1923, James and his sister donated land at Pinjarra Hills, formerly the University’s Veterinary School Farm, and in 1927 they paid £63,000 to resume riverside land at St Lucia for the University. In 1939, as the sandstone-clad buildings were taking shape at St Lucia, James Mayne died. Upon Mary Emelia Mayne's death in 1940, their Estate went to benefit the University Medical School, their names perpetuated in the naming of the Mayne Medical School.

The Mayne Estate bequeathed a significant number of artworks to the University’s Collection, including works by Thomas Balcombe, Isaac Walter Jenner, Melville Haysom, Marian Ellis Rowan and Romain Steppe, among others. Artworks depicting the family home of ‘Moorlands’ by John Campbell and Robert Rayment were included in this bequest.

Paintings portraying James Mayne by Melville Haysom and Mary Emelia Mayne by Charles Gosford are on display in the UQ Art Museum. Melville Haysom’s 1936 portrait depicts James Mayne holding a map of the St Lucia site.